Two former Parramatta Eels players are accused of harbouring semi-automatic weapons and possessing more than half-a-million dollars in cash after dramatic arrests in Sydney's Centennial Park yesterday.

Coal mine looked too much like a gold mine

A group of businessmen who stood to make millions from a NSW mining licence said the deal should not look like "a goldmine for entrepreneurs", documents tabled before the corruption watchdog reveal.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is investigating a coal exploration licence granted by disgraced former NSW mining minister Ian Macdonald in 2008 to a group of entrepreneurs for a Hunter Valley tenement known as Doyles Creek.

Mining consultant Peter Demura took the witness box on Thursday and was shown handwritten notes from a December 2007 meeting attended by ex-union John Maitland boss and other businessmen who stood to benefit from the licence.

In one note Mr Demura wrote, "need to demonstrate benefits and not a goldmine for entrepreneurs".

In another note he said, "shouldn't be seen as a privilege for entrepreneurs - transparency".

Mr Demura said he was the one that had taken the notes but could not remember who in the meeting had made those statements.